The belief common among many, not least of all among Germans, that Germany was uniquely evil is just a variation on the former belief that Germans were uniquely superior. I don't buy it. There were a constellation of circumanstances that produced Hitler. Some of these circumstances were undoubtedly rooted in the German character, but mostly they were the result of WWI. No one like Hitler had ever ruled Germany before and none since.....Compare Hitler with Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. etc. There is something about Marxism that produces genocidal tyrants. This fact is seldom examined, nor is the support that these thugs have had among western intellectuals.

I had never watched "Triumph of the Will" except in snippets until last night, when I used my new Netflix account to view it. Quite a remarkable film, with a lot of emotional power. Part of that power comes from the clear knowledge of the horror Hitler's party lead to. I say "Hitler's party" because it was so explicit, even in 1934, that in the Nazis viewed Hitler as the party and the state and the state was Hitler. Hess says this in almost precisely these terms near the end of the film.

That concept is not ascendant anywhere in the European-American culture right now, nor thankfully does it seem to be the norm in China. They are not democratic, but since Mao have avoided having one man be the embodiment of the state.

The most bloody and repressive societies of the 20th century, and the worst of today (Iraq under Hussein, Libya, Cambodia, Iran) have all featured this mystic identity between one man and the state.

George Washington lead us away from that path over 200 years ago. Bless him.

I worked at a rose nursery in northern Germany back in the day and lived in the workers dorms. One of my room mates was a Nazi, freshly out of the (West) German army. Every night he would put "Conversations with Hitler" on his night stand, every morning the cleaning lady would put it in the drawer. Of course, the book has turned out to be phony. He also read the der National Zeitung - NZ as he emphasized.

Anyway, it's not as if all the Nazis magically disappeared after the war, I ran into several others.

"But the question facing German officials today is whether pushing those ideas underground makes them more radical in the short term, and maybe even more attractive in the long run, precisely because they are forbidden."

The old concept of the forbidden fruit. Maybe the people who wrote the Old Testament were onto something.

But those bitter clingers don't know anything, do they?

A. Shmendrik said...

66 years, perhaps, but 6 million people, annihilated because of their religion? That never ages out. I don't like repression of even symbolic speech, but this is a special case.

Actually about 14 million, including Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Slavs, Poles, and Russians. The 5 1/2 million Jews constituted about half the Jews in Europe.

Had the war gone his way, Adolf's next target was the Catholic Church.

If you read the article, you'll see that it's a pretty blatant attempt to conflate Naziism with the growing German belief that multiculturalism is dead.

Just because you oppose multiculturalism doesn't mean you're a Nazi. (In fact, it's easy to argue that the Romantic vision of ethnicity offered by the multiculturalists has more in common with Naziism than adherents are willing to admit.)

The article links the rise of right wing extremism to xenophobia and anti immigration. No big surprise when countries that are not traditionaly open to immigration loosen those restrictions and fail to require assimilation of their new citizens its going to breed resentment.

Most of Europe is in a demographic death spiral so bringing in third world immigrants is the only way to keep population at least stable. No reason for the immigrants to adopt the traditions and culture of a society that is chooses not to perpetuate itself.

When the evil presence that worked its will on men's minds through the symbols of the Swaztika and the Heil Hitler salute has been stopped and driven out, then it is also necessary to rid the people of contact objects to that evil presence.

Otherwise you will permit re-introducing a quickly multiplying pathogen into the body politic like bringing back the Spanish Influensa virus's power to kill.

People will be discussing Nazism for thousands of years. I'm not sure that 66 is very many, in the scheme of things. In fact, it's disconcerting just how close my sane little world is, time-wise, to this horrible world.

Germany's reaction is understandable, but I think ultimately the best solution is to bring these bastards into the light of day for real criticism.

"Never again", Europeans said after the war in Europe ended. That thinking resulted in the pussification of an entire continent, and they're about to give it all away to a culture that belongs in the 8th century. Schade!

A. Shmendrik said...66 years, perhaps, but 6 million people, annihilated because of their religion? That never ages out. I don't like repression of even symbolic speech, but this is a special case.

+++++++++++++No more "special" than communisms or Islams victims, which were more numerous yet we do not repress their speech.

================Dustin said...People will be discussing Nazism for thousands of years. I'm not sure that 66 is very many, in the scheme of things+++++++++++++++++I doubt it, unless Jews dominate the media fare the world is fed - which even now is a shadow of the influence Jews had over the global media from the 60s to early 90s. .Otherwise - National Socialism soon fades into history as another movement that had it's brief day, killed a lot of people, was the Boogeyman for a few decades after being defeated, and faded. Studied for academic interest, with no real "emotion" one way or the other assigned to it. Conquistadors, rise and fall of the Jap militarists that killed nearly as many. The Chinese Warlord period, Assyrians, Zulus, Protestant Wars, etc.

When the upcoming generation of Germans begin bearing the full weight of both bailing out southern Europe and the increasing effects of ill-advised immigration policies (sound familiar?) you will almost certainly see a rise in nationalism.And since the European political model consists of left wing socialists and right wing socialists, this movement will be both nationalist and socialist.

Who are you forgetting in there? (Think: smaller, less powerful lobbying groupPeople with down syndrome and people that resembled them.Also right wing politicians.All but the leader of the catholic party, later honored by the Vatican, that handed Hitler the power, were killed in the Long Knives night

You know you're in the presence of pure white-trash idiocy when you read or hear some yokel insisting Nazis were leftists, merely because of the s-word in their name. Say danke to that untalented blowhard Jonah Goldberg for that brainfart